MAMMALIA INSECTIVO R A DIAGRAM 3 . 



35 



Shrew icouse. 



THE SHREW-MOUSE. This is the small- 

 est of all mammals. It is smaller than 

 the mouse ; it may be known by its much 

 longer and more pointed muzzle, and by 

 its teeth, which, like those of the bats and 

 moles, are the teeth of a carnivorous ani- 

 mal, short, sharp, made for crushing insects, whereas the mouse 

 has teeth made for gnawing wood. 



The shrew-mouse lives in the fields where it makes burrows ; 

 it destroys as many insects as it requires to nourish its little 

 body. It is therefore a friendly animal, and although its aid is 

 not of much importance on account of its size, we ought never- 

 theless to refrain from destroying it. It was thought that the 

 bite of the shrew-mouse would produce a very serious disease 

 in the feet of horses ; but this is a mistake. 



Hie hedgehog is the largest of our native insectivorous animals. 

 It destroys a great number of insects and snails of all kinds ; it 

 does not perhaps eat so much as the mole ; but at any rate it 

 does not injure the crops. When it is very hungry it probably 

 eats field-mice, voles, and rats, rodent animals as destructive as 

 insects, and which likewise appear to dread the hedgehog, as 



Hedgehog. 



they shun the places which it inhabits. It passes the winter 

 asleep in a hole. Its skin is covered with prickles, but they 

 would not protect it well if it did not roll itself up into a ball 



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